20 | 08 | 2018

TYPO3 Sprints – An Interview With Our TYPO3 Engineer

TYPO3, a flexible and powerful open source CMS, has long become one of the important competencies of our company. Agiliway works with TYPO3 on a regular basis to provide top-notch IT solutions and carry out ambitious projects for our clients. More than that, our TYPO3 engineers are active contributors to the open source project regularly participating of TYPO3 sprints. In this short interview, we asked one of such TYPO3 specialists, Yaroslav, to share with us his experience and ideas about this TYPO3 event.

Q.: Yaroslav, please, tell us how you got engaged in TYPO3 sprints?

Y.T.: I had been working with TYPO3 for four years already when my friend and coworker told me about TYPO3 sprints. It was he who introduced me to the community and facilitated my participation in sprints. At that time, we were creating TYPO3.org, my.typo3.org and extensions.typo3.org websites, so the sprint was meant to solve some practical issues we were facing. For example, on October 2017 sprint in Stuttgart, I teamed up with Harry Glatz to solve layout issues. We added sortable tables, ajax login state, improved the layout of a slider and font loading. In January, 2018, we have developed a lot of improvements to the layout too.

READ MORE: typo3.org Team Sprint in Frankfurt (Jan 2018)

Q.: There are many events related to TYPO3, TYPO3camp and TYPO3 Developer Days (DevDays) among them. How do sprints differ from other events?

Y.T.: DevDays and TYPO3camps are great events too, but they do differ from code sprints. For example, although DevDays may host sprints where practical issues are resolved (for example, we had a sprint night during a DevDay in Malmo, Sweden), they are primarily developer oriented.

TYPO3camps are the community events, which cater to the needs and interests of the participants. They gather developers, companies and simply interested people to share and generate new ideas and make new contacts. TYPO3 sprints in their turn are designed to make the very project, not only individual TYPO3 developers better. Sprints are practically oriented and each sprint is organised to solve a certain issue or improve a definite feature. They are not necessarily code oriented, as there are sprints for improving design, documentation or education too. The TYPO3 community has a roadmap for improving the project, which clearly shows the schedule of sprints, the goals of each sprint, and their statuses: finished, in progress or planned. Thus, the peculiarity of this event is that each sprint has a clear practical goal and tangible results.

Q.: How many sprints have you attended? How does a TYPO3 sprint look like?

Y.T.: I have been on TYPO3 sprints for 5 or 6 times in different cities of Germany. Last year, all the sprints I have attended in Germany accounted for one month I guess. Sprints took place in companies, which were platinum partners of TYPO3. We assembled early in the morning, outlined the tasks we had to complete to reach the sprint’s goals, split into teams, and… coded until late at night. A friend of mine, Mattias Nilsson who introduced me to the relaunch team, says he’s too old for this thing, sprints! (Laughing). Of course, we had breaks, but everyone was so passionate about what he did, that it was impossible to keep us away from work for too long. Now, sprints are mostly remote. Each Friday, there is a call during which open issues and projects we are trying to implement are discussed, so it is even easier to join.

Q.: Please, tell more about this. How can a developer join a TYPO3 sprint? Are there any requirements in terms of experience or a level of expertise?

Y.T.: No, there are no specific requirements, just the wish to contribute to the open source project is needed. Of course, the biggest contribution is delivered by guru developers, but juniors and testers can provide valuable assistance too. Links inviting to join the sprints may be easily found on the TYPO3 website. I would be happy to refer somebody directly too.

Q.: Yaroslav, what have TYPO3 sprints meant for you? What change have they made?

Y.T.: TYPO3 sprints have been an incredible experience for me. Of course, they have affected my career, but they have also boosted my motivation. I was really amazed at how big and well-organised an open source community can be, and it feels great to be a part of it. In addition to increasing TYPO3 skills, I have learned a lot about how various IT companies work and can now share this experience within Agiliway too. What’s more, I have made friends with great like-minded people from other countries who helped me to progress and whom I love to meet on Dev Days now.

Stuttgart TYPO3 Sprints

Yaroslav (on the left) with other members of October 2017 sprint in Stuttgart (Photo by typo3.org)

Q.: Would you recommend other developers to attend TYPO3 sprints?

For sure! All events of the project are great, but if you really want to make your contribution to the CMS, which makes your job, your specialisation, your passion – TYPO3 sprint is right for you! I have always been trying to engage developers from Ukraine to attend sprints and I have actually discussed the development of TYPO3 association in Ukraine with Olivier Dobberkau, the President of TYPO3 Association. He emphasised that he places the high priority on the development of community and promised to support the development of our association and its participation in various events, so I do encourage Ukrainian TYPO3 specialists to lean in.

Q.: Thank you! It is great to have you on board!

Y.T.: Thank you.

P.S. Agiliway continues to actively interact with a TYPO3 community. Already this September, our engineers are participating in TYPO3 East Europe (T3EE) in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Hope to see some of our readers there!

READ ALSO:  TYPO3 Regulation Adoption System for a Hospital Operator

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